The Powerpuff Girls Season 3 Ranking and Review

I love this season! This is my favorite season of the Powerpuff Girls. I'll get more into why in my review but first the rankings.  

 Season 3 Ranking:

24: Town and Out: The only episode of the season I don't like, and even then it's more interesting than most of the other bad episodes of the series. The episode feels mean-spirited as it torments the PPG for no reason, but I like the way the girls try to ignore it stoically out of love for their father, thinking he loved Citysville. I also really hate both in and out of universe when people blame the superhero for somehow not causing destruction to the city caused by the villain, as though they were supposed to be magically be better than them so I like that the girls are only punished for the destruction they actually caused to Citysville and despite the destruction of a major national landmark, the only punishment given is an honestly relatively fitting ban on them using their powers. The episode isn't good but it's interestingly not good, and in a way that personally interests me. 

23: Catastrophe: Regenerating slime monster comes to Townsville looking for its kitty. The girls search for the kitty only to eventually find it on the monster's back. This is what I'm talking about. This is a fine episode, it's just by Season 3 standards what would be in any other season a fine episode is near the bottom. I liked the episode well enough and I appreciate how the monster design was a little more unique, rather than an invulnerable beast-looking thing, it was some kind of regenerating slime thing. Didn't need to be for the plot, they just added a little bit extra to it.

22: Power Lunch: This is another episode that's near the bottom not because anything's wrong with it, it's a fairly average episode, but just because the standards of Season 3 are so high. The Gangreen Gang temporarily gain powers, fight the Girls until their powers run out, than get beaten up. It's kinda anticlimactic, but it's mostly just a fight scene episode. I like that what the Gangreen Gang were eating at the mini-mart foreshadows the type of powers they end up getting, like Ace eating ice cream and getting ice powers.

21: Getting Twiggy With It: This is a classic revenge type episode. This kid, Mitch takes home the class hamster Twiggy, and after abusing the poor animal almost killing it if the Powerpuff Girls didn't intervent to protect her. After being mutated by radiation, Twiggy becomes giant and scares Mitch, threatening him and the Girls let him get a taste of his own medicine. I'm not really big into revenge type episodes and I hated seeing poor Twiggy be so abused, but it's a good revenge episode overall. The girls don't go overboard in my opinion on Mitch for his crimes and I like they confirm they don't want to save him, but they do it anyway because it's the right thing to do.

20: Criss Cross Crisis: The Professor accidentally switches everyone's bodies in an attempt to "switch an apple with an orange." which is a randomly funny way to start the event. It's fun. It's a different take on the body switch episode since it's not a fish out of water type story and for the most people everyone knows who everyone else is, but moreso fight scenes with characters in weird body shapes. I do think it was weird that the PPG didn't realize someone else was in Mojo's body, something that could have been fixed if they hadn't shown a dog in a woman's body, and thought that it didn't work on animals. It didn't really feel like it needed to be a 22 minute episode, it felt a little stretched

19: Headsucker's Moxy: This is a good episode with the opposite problem as the last. It's a mystery about a monster that attacks people, stealing their memories and information making it impossible to identify it since it steals memories of its own attacks. This one could have been a 22 minute ep, and while the solution was good, the mystery could have gone on a little longer. Still I prefer a little rushed to a little stretched out.

18: Monkey See, Doggy Two: This episode is all buildup to one really funny punchline. Basically Mojo plans to do his own plot from the first episode, but has fixed the problem that one had, showing in painstaking detail to the Powerpuff Girls his old plan, the first episode of the show, with the episode interspersing just actual footage from the first ep. The whole thing is a buildup to the end reveal in that because he didn't actually turn them into dogs this time, they just beat him up like normally. It's funny, and I like the episode, especially because it's obviously been a while since I've seen the first episode just due to all the episodes in between. It's not a very versatile joke, it's pretty much all one joke, but it's a pretty good one I thought.

17: Hot Air Buffoon: The Mayor decides to try to take on crime himself, and so he starts riding out in a hot air balloon hitting anyone he thinks has commit a crime with his extending punching globe, the EQUALIZER. This one of the Mayor's best episodes. He technically an antagonist force in the episode, but his motive is at least on face understandable, and he's entertaining in how power-mad he goes, and how bizarre his plan is. 

16: Candy is Dandy: So there's three episodes like this in this season, all I like roughly the same, where one or more of the girls start doing an immoral behavior that escalates over time and they have to learn a lesson. In this case they start eating candies for stopping crime, and get addicted, even repeatedly breaking Mojo out of jail so they can get more candy. I am neutral on this type of plotline in general and I think the episode does it well enough. 

15: Moral Decay: Similar premise, only this time it's Buttercup trying to knock out teeth for money from the tooth fairy. I have to say it's very sweet how after the first time when Bubbles accidentally knocks out one of Bubbles' teeth she's so apologetic, repeatedly apologizing even in future scenes. Likewise she was throwing her arms around excitedly and accidentally impacted Bubbles knocking out one of her teeth but later was unable to knock one on purpose, showing that she doesn't actually want to hurt her sister. The punishment also felt very fitting, the enemies Buttercup beat for her teeth come back for revenge, and Buttercup has to give all her ill-gotten gains to pay for the dentist. 

14: Ploys R' Us: The third of these type of episodes, this one about the PPG taking advantage of the Professor's sleepwalking to get toys when he steals them while he's asleep. I like this one the most because of its ending, which is really dramatic in comparison. The Professor tricks the girls into thinking he's been gunned down trying to get their toys causing the girls to cry out in despair, thinking their greed has killed their dear father, only to reveal it was all a trick. Jeez Professor. Traumatizing. On the one hand, the girls do act more amoral this episode than normal this episode, though they probably thought there was no real harm being done to anyone. I also like how at the end the Mayor offers to let the girls keep the toys but Blossom admits they don't deserve them which was humble. 

13: The Mane Event: This is a mostly pretty good episode teaching not to let others judgement of your appearance break your self-confidence. I especially liked however the Professor's reassuring words to Blossom and the way Blossom turns it around on first the monster, than the other girls at the end of the episode. 

12: Bubblevision: Pretty similar to the last episode, though I relate to this one a bit more due to my personal experiences. I also really liked the clever way the main obstacle, Bubbles' glasses impacted the plot and saved the day, via Bubbles using them basically as a magnifying glass against the giant ant. 

11: Cop Out: This is a really funny episode about the worst police member in Townsville being fired and trying to get revenge against the Powerpuff Girls who he believes for inane reasons is responsible. I found it funny just how much of a lazy entitled person they made Mike Brikowski, and also thought it was good they didn't treat all police as similarly inept, and how the normal police members helped the PPG at the end and were part of the Narrator's "and so the day was saved."

10: Fallen Arches: The first episode of the season and it was a good one to start out. Some elderly supervillains come out of retirement, but Blossom can't fight her elders so she gets some elderly superheroes to fight them in the PPG's place. It's really funny how overdramatic the elder supers are. Broadly this ep has the same appeal as the Mermaidman and Barnacle Boy episodes of Spongebob which is a type of humor I really enjoy. 

9: Meet the Beat-Alls: It's an episode made entirely of Beatles parodies and references with Mojo, HIM, Fuzzy, and Princess forming a villain team, presented partially as a bio pic the same as might be made of the Beatles. I love how some of the references are actually fairly subtly slipped in, and some are such an in-your-face stretch. It's hilarious. This is an episode regularly considered one of the best in the series, and the fact it's only 9 really speaks to how good Season 3 is. 

8: Helter Shelter: This is an episode about Bubbles trying to keep animals, in particular a baby whale in their house without the Professor knowing and about needing to let something go free if you love it. As a kid who was most like Bubbles, I related to the message of the episode. The episode is also really funny. I regularly think of Bubbles defense for bringing back a whale then the Professor said no animals "He's NOT an animal! He's a mammal!" Bubbles is at one of her goofiest appearances in this episode, and it's really funny.

7: Powerprof: This is one of the sweetest episodes of the season. The Professor, wanting to spend more time with the girls, makes himself a super suit and fights crime with them, embarrassing them. The Professor missing spending time with the girls is really sweet and compelling for all his embarrassing habits, and I like they don't have to break his spirit by telling him in some contrived sad scene they don't want him around all the time to get him to stop. Instead they cleverly arrange a fight between him and Mojo so the strain of battle makes him want to stop. I mostly like this episode for how sweet the relations between the girls and the Professor is this episode.

6: Jewel of the Aisle: This is a weird episode but I also think it's kind of ingenious and hilarious. I love the way the criminal not only has the cereal mascot on but keeps putting more costumes on OVER that and the way the episode is structured sets it up to act exactly like the cereal commercials it's parodying. I just think this episode is really funny and has an ingenious premise for an ep, how the criminal accidentally set it up so he had to steal the cereal to get the jewel inside back, and also how he gets so focused on the cereal itself he forgot he was even trying to get the jewel back.

 5: Bought and Scold: This episode is simple but it's such a delicious irony. Princess has her father buy Townsville for her and legalizes crime, making it illegal to stop any crime. So of course the Powerpuff girls just rob her since she legalized that. I honestly think this might be Princess' best episode. It's such a natural thing for someone whose superpower is supernaturally huge amounts of money to do, yet such a clear and obvious problem with it that it made the resolution both inevitable yet hilarious. 

4: Child-Fearing: Really iconic episode and for good reason. This is an episode that just screams Powerpuff Girls to me, an episode that takes advantage of the biggest strength of the series. A supervillain having to babysit three little girl superheroes who drives him from wanting to use them to take over the world, to wanting them to go to bed, to just wanting to escape is very funny, either because reality ensues like when Mojo makes the girls fancy food for dinner yet because they're five they don't like it at all, or the opposite like how the Girls demonstrate a comically unrealistic knowledge of Napoleon's war history to invalidate Mojo's bedtime story. This is an episode that understands what made the Powerpuff Girls good.

Much like the last season, I have a special three episodes of this season and it kills me to put any at the bottom as I adore all three.

3: Three Girls and a Monster: CLASSIC episode, and a demonstration of just what makes Bubbles so great. It's beautiful in its minimalism. Blossom and Buttercup both try and fail to stop an unnaturally strong giant monster with their own tactics. Blossom wants to use a strategy while Buttercup wants to just attack it aggressively. Bubbles tries to help both with their strategies but neither works. Finally Bubbles has enough and just politely asks the monster to leave which it does, before she tells off her sisters. I love how Bubbles can be the goofball in episodes like Helter Shelter but also the voice of reason in episodes like this. This episode is a really good demonstration of what's great about Bubbles. She's a sweet sentimentalist who can get around problems her sisters can't by way of empathizing with everyone. 

2: Equal Fights: Great episode that teaches an important lesson to children. Man-hating isn't cool. Sexism against one sex, is sexism against your own as well. I thought they showed this in a really good way as well, by showing the girls began looking at everything in their own lives as sexism and how they weren't seeing how Femme Fatale was hurting other women as well by being free. Protecting only your own isn't what being a hero is, a hero is meant to stand up for everyone. I really like the speech the PPG make to Femme Fatale when they finally apprehend her. 

1: Super Zeroes: My favorite episode of the series! I love everything about this episode, its funny, its got great character moments for all three girls, its got a good plot, it gives the series an actual bit of lore around why giant monsters are always attacking. I like the message, I thought it was presented in a good way. I thought Bubbles directly literal English translation of her manga was hilarious, and I thought it was clever that Bubbles would be the one reading manga given her omnilingualism. The girls, especially Harmony Bunny are really cute in their outfits. It also has my favorite joke in the entire series where the Professor mentions to himself how silly the girls fixation with their comics are before returning to his very "serious" newspaper comic serial of a daring and dramatic Heroic Professor trying to save the world while women are throwing themselves at him. This episode is great in everyway I can think off. 

Season 3 Review:

PPG Season 3 is not just my favorite season from PPG, it may be my favorite season from any cartoon. About a dozen great episodes, a few of which are fantastic, another dozen pretty good, with few dipping below. That's a really impressive record to me. PPG Season 2 was really good, but it always felt to me sort of a generically good, a good that was universal to everyone. Season 3 on the other hand felt almost tailored to my interests at times, with whole episodes about things I cared for. It's the season I felt best encapsulated the central dichotomy I would consider the biggest appeal of PPG; the dichotomy of the godlike metahuman superheroes being these cute little girls. The girls feel drastically stronger this season; often easily defeating villains that were prior massive threats, like Mojo or Princess and actually being able to beat up HIM in Meet the Beat-Alls and Moral Decay. In episodes like Moral Decay or Child Fearing, the PPG are more childish forces of nature than characters, whose agency sweeps up even seemingly serious supervillains into their childish antics. While the girls would often get trapped in Season 2, they feel like almost unstoppable in a lot of the Season 3 episodes, with only particularly strong one-offs or a teamup of all their enemies in a supervillain team to pose a challenge. Similarly yet paradoxically, this season has more episodes based on the PPGs own conscious decisions. So many episodes of this season were about the girls making a mistake and learning from it and it made them feel very dynamic and growing this season. I've heard it described that Season 3 still had the charm of the first two seasons but had the polish of season 4, and that's a good way of describing part of the appeal of the season to me. Every other episode was a really creative idea, yet the execution was clean and without the random gaps in logic seen in the first two seasons. Every episode was at least interesting and they were almost without exception solidly built. The top three episodes of this season are all amazing, and most of the other seasons have few episodes if any that I like as much. Overall just a fantastic season.